


you need to start telling me things

by smolsicky



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M, all my favorite characters have asthma, and i'm reckoning with that, i don't make the rules, i have asthma, so as i've mentioned, so now, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-22 05:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20868911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolsicky/pseuds/smolsicky
Summary: Alec has asthma and somehow this has never come up in conversation. Ellie is (rightly) pissed.





	you need to start telling me things

Alec was drowning. There was too much water, it was too deep and he couldn’t breathe. He could feel his lungs filling, could feel his arms getting heavier and heavier. For a good bit they had been trying to pull him up, to get him to the surface, but it seemed that they had decided he was a lost cause. Somewhere far away, he heard a familiar voice hollering, high pitched and insistent. Suddenly there was something being shoved into his mouth, and he tasted chemicals on his tongue. Then there was nothing for awhile.

\-- 

“Asthma, Alec? Really? Do you ever tell me anything important?”

His eyes fluttered open and settled on Ellie. 

“What’re ya on about, Miller?” he croaked. Then he looked around and realized he was laying on the ground. He made a move to sit up and Ellie immediately whipped out an arm to stop him. 

“Absolutely not. You stay right there.”

He returned to his position on the floor with a fretful cough that shook him. He felt his sternum shake in his chest, felt his lungs rattle, felt Ellie’s concern even though he wasn’t even looking at her.

“‘M fine, Miller. Just a wee cough, s’nothing to worry about.” His voice was raspy and he gave a valiant effort to clear it, feeling an embarrassed flush rising to his cheeks.

Ellie just stared at him. 

“Nothing to worry about? Bloody hell, Alec. Do you remember what happened?”

Alec was about to open his mouth and indignantly inform her that of course he did, thank you very much, when he realized that no. No, he didn’t remember anything involving the lead up to him lying on the ground like this, with Ellie and her orange rain coat leaning over him exuding well intentioned worry and his pants getting soggy from this morning’s rain. 

“Yea, I didn’t bloody well think so,” Ellie snapped. She was really and truly angry at him, as much as she’d been that day in the boat yard when he’d pulled a similar stunt. 

He would’ve given a sigh, but he had a feeling that if he made any attempt to use his lungs that intensely, it would go horribly wrong for him. He gazed up at her. Her hair was frantically curling up around her head, and her jaw was set, yet it still quivered just the smallest bit. Suddenly, Alec felt very very guilty.

“Millah?” He reached his hand out and took hers. She looked down at him, startled.

“‘M sorry.”

She smiled at him, and just then it got hard to breathe again, and not just because his lungs were shit.

“It’s alright. Just… you need to start telling me things.”


End file.
